Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1981-06-18 City Council Summary MinutesCITY COUNCIL MINUTES Special Meeting Thursday, June 18, 1981 CITY o� PALO ALTO ITEM ;'AGE Interview of Consultants for the Selection of City Attorney Special Meeting Thursday, June 18, 1981 The City Council of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in the Council Conference Room at City Hall, 250 Hamilton Avenue, at 7:30 p.m. PRESENT: Bechtel (arrived 7:45 p.m.) , Fazzino, Fletcher, Henderson, Klein, Renzel, Eyerly, Levy ABSENT: Witherspoon Mayor Henderson introduced Robert Slavin of Korn/Ferry Interna- tional. Robert Slavin, Consultant, Governmen`, Services Division, Korn/Ferry Internatio=nal, said that: Korn/ Ferry is the largest executive search firm in the country with consist of 13 domestic offices, and were the only search firm that had a government services practice. The government services division operates out of Century City in Southern California and Norm Roberts, Vice President in charge, was the founder of that division. Norm Roberts will be directly involved in the search for the city_ attorney if they are selected. He noted that biographies, references, and a listing of their clients were attached to the proposal. He indicated that they had recently completed a rather. complicated search for a City Attorney for the City of Beverly Hills, which provided a relatively recent knowledge of city attorneys in the State of California. The search was a nationwide search with a focus on California. Mr. Slavin said that Korn/Ferry's proposal was based on a premise that no such thing as the perfect candidate, but rather, a candidate needs to be selected on the basis of the environment in which he/she would work. Fdr that reason, their process. involved a considerable amount of time spent getting to know their applicant agencies. They proposed to meet with each of the Councilmembers individually to determine their concerns, issues, etc. in order to arrive at a general agreement regarding the qualifications for the position. Based upon the interviews, the information would be put into a Recruitment Profile and would describe in detail information about the government (City of Palo Alto), about the job, hierarchy, legal parameters, salary, benefits and, what type of candidate was most desirable. It would also include information from existing job descriptions. The document serves three primary functions: it provides a handle on what the City is looking for., it provides guidance for the search work, and, provides the candidates some information about the. city. Councilmember. Fletcher asked if Korn/Ferry was the only firm with a government services practice. Mr. Slavin answered affirmatively. He indicated that Korn/Ferry provided .only governmental services and that other consultant services such as Ralph Andersen and Rich Hughes did general consulting and primarily provided services to local governments. Councilmember Fletcher clarified with Mr. Slavin that Korn/Ferry would meet with each of the' Councilmembers individually prior to searching' for candidates, .. Mr. Slavin indicated that the schedule would be preestablished .. and the process would take approximately- 60 days. Mayor Henderson indicato..that if the interview process didn't, take place until the.. end of August, they-. wouldn't be able to. select at the beginning of September. 9 2.9 6/18/8' Mr. Slavin said he would work within their schedule. He said that the standard of the industry was unlike what they have received from either Ralph Andersen or Rich Hughes. The standard of the Korn/Ferry executive search provided that for fee of 33-1/3%.. They of the first year cash compensation. proposed a fixed -fee basis which provided the City with the information ahead of time as to what the exact costs would be and it also allowed them to participate in the salary negotiating process without any concern on the City's part that Korn/Ferry had a vested interest in the amount of dollars that the City proposed. He corrected the proposed figure of $12,000 to $8,000 and indicated that that figure was slightly negotiable. Councilmember Renzel asked what was the minimal acceptable time period to advertise and receive applications. Mr. Slavin answered that it depended on at what point they placed the ads. He would advertise in "Western City" perhaps NIMLO Publications, Job Finders, Jobs Available, plus local newspapers. From the date the ads hit the market, there should be three weeks allowed for response time. Councilmember Renzel asked if three weeks was a typical response time. Mr. Slavin said yes. He also indicated that the better qualified people were usually very happy in their present positions and needed to be identified, directly contacted, and encouraged to become candidates. The real service that Korn/Ferry provided was that they had connections with professional organizations and could find people who would not normally respond to the ad. Mayor Henderson asked whether Korn/Ferry took the initiative in any way to contact people that they felt might be good candidates for the position. Mr. Slavin responded yes. Councilmember Klein asked for an explanation of why the search for a city attorney for Beverly Hills was a difficult one. Mr. Slavin indicated that th-e Beverly Hills' City Council was comprised of S individualist members. The city attorney was faced with an immediate and obvious problem, where to live and the . fact that the position had changed three times_in the last five years. Further,, there was no real promise that it wasn't going to change again. Mr. Slavin said there was a need to keep _a large number of -active candidates available recruiting within - - the state as well as out of the state, He indicated that it was a very difficult process for a lot of reasons. Councilmember Bechtel asked if there was a guarantee as a part of the consulting services that the person hired would last at least six months. Mr. Slavin said that if the appointee left within the first six months, their firm would recruit for a replacement at no extra expense, and if a problem occurred after :that period, they would want to be notified. He indicated that they have always worked with.the client and their, work had resulted in successful placements He mentioned that there had -been a couple of times when theyfelt that they had meshed a candidate very carefully to the Profile and at the end of the process the client indicated that the candidates was not what they were looking for. The Profile was again looked at and in some -cases resulted in refinement of the profile which allowed them to find candidates that were more pleasing. Councilmember Renzel asked in the case of an appointee leaving, would they do a -second recruitment or would they work within the applications that were received. Mr. Slavin said they would do another recruitment. 9 3-.0 6/18/81 Councilmember Fazzino asked how much work was proposed to be done outside of California. Mr. Slavin said he proposed not to search outside of California although he did know of . some people that no longer worked in California that were licensed. in the State and had municieal law experience. Mayor Henderson said"that the City of Palo Alto City Attorney was an independent office and was well, defined. It wasn't as if they needed to work with the departments to spell out the ramifica- tions. Mr. Slavin said that since the City of Palo Alto was a charter city, he planned to look at the charter and the organization charts. He noted that the;° city owned its utilities and would need to know whether experience with utilities was an important factor. Councilmember Eyerly noted that Korn/Ferry had done considerable searches for positions in the State of California. He asked how many were for, city attorneys. Mr. Slavin said to his knowledge only the one for Beverly Hills. He indicated there was one in Alaska and he was not aware of others. He said that they had been involved in other legal searches. Mr. Slavin indicated that- he would be working with Norm Roberts who would manage the search. Councilmember Eyerly asked what other Council -appointed officers they had placed. Mr. Slavin indicated: in Alameda County, Beverly Hi i l s, City of Hemet, City of Huntington Beach, and City of Long Beach, Los Angeles County and the City of Riverside and City of San Francisco, City of Turlock and Lakewood, etc.-- Councilmember Levy asked why so few city attorneys. Mr. Slavin said that city attorneys -are hard to move for one -_ thing. The tendency is - that once they become city attorneys they tend to stay longer than city managers. City managers generally turn over every five years. Councilmember Levy asked what the salary was for thecity attorney of Beverl y Hi l l s. Mr. Slavin responded that it was $58,000, with a $500 per month rental allowance for six months, and with the stipulation that the city grant him a $100,000 mortgage loan if he purchased a home. Councilmember Eyerly asked whether Mr. Slavin felt there was still a need to interview each member of the Council separately. Mr. Slavin said he would propose to interview members of the Council, and if Council wishes, interview members of the,staff and public. There are issues and problems that the city attorney. would be facing that they wduid like to determine. He suggested working with the Mayor or any designee to develop the information for the. Profile and submit it for approval. Councilmember Eyerly, noted that the Council was were a political body and an election was scheduled in the Fall. There was the possibility that next year the Councilmembers might not be the same as those who worked with the selected city attorney. It seemed to him that Korn/Ferry wanted to get an individual political view of each of the CouncilmemPers as to what they felt a city attorney ought to be like. He saiu that bothered him and asked what was behind that action. 931 6/81/81 Mr. Slavin responded that it typically provided information from each member of the Council that quite often a member of the Council would not share in open discussions. Also they have often had the same comments from several members of the Council, all or none of whom would share that comment in a group interview. Those various comments would be placed in a document and provided to all Councilmembers and no one would know where the document came from. Mr. Slavin said they needed to kr±ow what would please the Council on the whole. Councilmemher Eyerly asked whether Mr. Slavin was aware of the situation with the last city attorney and, if so, was he aware of what the Council was seeking in terms of an independent attorney. He asked Mr. Slavin to elaborate. Mr. Slavin said that his understanding was that the Council wanted an attorney who would provide checks and balances for the government of the city. Also, that the attorney would not be heavily influenced by staff or by any one, but who would provide a separate and distinct function to this City Council. Mayor Henderson said it made sense for Mr. Slavin to talk with the Acting Ciy Attorney to get a real feel for what goes on in the office. Also, in the city manager's search, the top six or eight candidates met the department heads. He asked whether Mr,. Slavin would recommend that it be done in this case. Mr. Slavin answered yes. Councilmember Levy said he could see many similarities between a search for another type of administrator and an attorney. He asked what the differences would be between an attorney search versus a city manager search. Mr. Slavin said the attorney field :is very much narrower and is a stickier field in the sense of getting people to change. Most attorneys are not easily moved. Close attention must be paid to a highly technical area rather than a broad area of management responsibilities, plus a management capability that would allow the 'attorney to operate an administrative budget, people and to yet along within the organization. Councilmember Bechtel asked whether five top candidates was Korn/Ferry recommendation for a manageable numbe to-be interviewed. She said she was certainly willing'to meet with more. Mr. Slavin said the proposed Profile would be very specific. and it may lend itself to 15 candidates. He hated to recommend .tha.t they interview 10 people when he felt that 5 of=_them were well qualified and the other 5 were not as qualified. There was no magic regarding the. number. Councilmember Bechtel asked how long Korn/Ferry had been in existence. Mr. Slavin said that the search firm had been in existence since 1969. It was now the world's largest search firm. The public search division of the business was affixed to Korn/Ferry in 1976. That division was founded by Norman Roberts and Bob Coop in 1970. Their firm began in San -Francisco - and their first assignment was to find a city manager. Mayor Henderson asked whether the candidates would be a rhinimum of 5. Mr. Slavin `said perhaps 3 to 5. Focus on the quality was more important than focus on the number. Mr. Roberts and himself -would" present a report to the Council that identified the candidates, contained a profile of each candidate in summary form, and, a fairly detailed evaluation of that candidate versus the profile. There would be a worksheet to be used within the interview process. 932 6/18/81 Councilmember Fazzino asked about the secondary round of interviews assuming the Council wished to go beyond the initial 5. He asked would there be a secondary group of 5 to 7 people as likely candidates. Mr. Slavin said yes. Councilmember Levy said he assumed that all resumes would be available to them. Mr. Slavin said that the candidates recommended to them would be reference checked, education, employment, and salary would all be verified. He indicated that the Council would have access to those resumes but cautioned that they would need to be held confidential, Mayor Henderson thanked Mr. Slavin. Mayor Henderson welcomed Rich Hughes and Rich Perry, Hughes, Heiss & Associates. Rich Hughes, Hughes, Heiss & Associate_s, said they have existed for 7 years. Prior to that he was an associate of Boos, Allen & Hamilton., They were located in San Mateo. They have_ served 94 clients in the 7 years and completed 182 assignments. There business consisted of 20% executive searches, and 80% program evaluation, productivity, and analytical work. He had worked for Palo Alto off and on since the late 60 with George Morgan and George Sipel. More recently they finished the feasibility maintenance study of the golf course, and currently were searching for an assistant director of utilities. He sat on the oral board for appointments of Fire Chief Bill Korff, and the Police Chief Jim Zurcher. He used a flow charts. He felt that since the city had used executive search firms in the past, it was not necessary to give the mechanics of the search. Therefore, they planned to highlight what they planned to do different than others in the search business. One reason they were in the search business was because -of the impact on the organization in terms of recruitment rather than writing studies. Obviously, it was necessary to meet with the Council and develop a candidate specification to be used at the outset for discussion purposes. He noted that within the last six months Hughes-Heiss had completed two searches for city attorneys. in Sunnyvale and Morgan Hi l l . They also had the opportunity during that time period to analyse the city attorney's operations in: Los Gatos and assist the Council in a decision as whether they should continue with a full time city attorney or use contractual city attorneys. Through'their analytical work they also d6ne .a major study in terms of public defendant services in San Diego_,County, district attorne=y staffing in Alameda County and ilk years ago he.conducted a city attorney's search for Santa Rosa. Mr. Hughes felt: they were as current as possible in terms of being involved in two current city attorneys searches an'd other -relevant legal services analyses. 1t certainly did not mean that they' had good candidates in their hip -pocket. As they weree aware, city -attorneys: were .a fairly scarce commodity and therefore the search would not be an easy search. Mr. Hughes indicated:that inetheir packet of material was their standard recruitment advertisement and .some examples of -ads used for Sunnyvale, Inglewood, etc=. Statistics showed that -50% or more 'of the people who look for .jobs look at the advertisement first and that natianally, only 25% get their employment through the ads..; While Hughes, Heist did not rely on Advertisements, depending'on_ the search, it generates those candidates that you .wouldn't find any other way. They. do not:rely en .the traditional candidate sources.-- For a recent search for chief of police, one of the candidates was a''vice president of a consulting firm in ' Washington, D.C. They believed in searching. He noted that the recruitment process was a two-way street 'and they were not only. talking : about the high ,cost of housing, high cost of moves, etc. — they were talking about -'t`, professional and sensitive relationship between the recruiting firm and'the candidate so that they stayed interested.' They used the telephone as an=evaluation instrument. 933 6/18/81 In Sunnyvale, they constructed five questions that they felt any attorney should be aware of if they were current in municipal law. They had the answers as given by very smart city attorneys in the industry. Rich Perry said that the questions were based on land use, labor relations, public safety, etc. Therefore, the final five candidates were in fact the five people who really knew the most about law. It wasn't the single criteria, but they matched up the best answers. Councilmember Klein asked for some information on the Sunnyvale search. Mr. Perry said it took about 75 days. They looked at approximately 30 candidates at the outset and spent at least 1-1/2 hours to 3 hours with 18 candidates. He indicated that 8 of the 30 candidates responded to the ads. Only 4 finalists were presented to the Council. Councilmember Fazzino said why the small response to the ads. Mr,. Hughes said that with a recent search.in Inglewood for a police chief, there were 50 applicants. They advertised in every minority paper, he sent letters to 125 people and made 75 phone calls which produced 50 candidates. Councilmember Bechtel asked how did Hughes,'Heiss screen. candidates. Mr. Perry said the first step was to develop the specifications of the ideal candidates. He said he would sit down with each Councilmember and find out what. they were looking for, not only in job knowledge but in style and how he/she would interact with staff-. Secondly, they would go through the job knowledge part of it and really get a handle on the candidates knowledge of law, generally, that is done by phone. If the candidates are within 40 to 50 miles that they can easily get together with them, their preference was face-to-face. Also, there is a self assessment questionnaire. Councilmember Bechtel indicated that one of the candidates for Morgan Hill, was a former City of Palo Alto city attorney, who was one of the top candidates. On paper, the person sounded fantastic, but she didn't know whether any reference checking was done with any Councilmembers or former Councilmembers because she was not sure he would have sounded as good then. Mr. Hughes said that in that particular situation, the attorney was currently doing work for the city in a bond capacity and the Council made the decision to interview. Mr. Perry said that there is a self assessment questionnaire and there were pros and cons on whether it should be used or not used. In the past, that assessment had scared prospective candidates off. Councilmember Fenzel asked what did they consider an ideal schedule for seeking out a city attorney. Mr. Hughes said that an ideal schedule would be 3 months, 75-90 days. Couneilmember Renzel said what is the fastest schedule. Mr. Hughes answered 42 days was his fastest recruitment period for a search. Mayor Henderson' asked if Hughes; Heiss was selected, what would be their first step. Mr. Hughes said he would talk with each Councilmember individually, and develop a' candidate's background. 934 6/18/81 Mr. Perry said that a general specification is not enough, the;, would want to talk with all of them. Councilmember Levy said that as they .know, housing prices in Palo Alto are high, and while they don't mandate that the city attorney live in town, did Hughes-Heiss have an,: thoughts as to how that should be taken into consideration. Mr. Hughes said he felt the Council would have to attack it in the same way they did for Bill Zaner. They might have to talk about what type of assistance they would provide. A lot will depend on the person's equity position at present. However, he felt that the Council needed to show willingness to negotiate on those kinds of things with the candidates. Mr. Perry said that the average cost of a home in Palo Alto is approximately $170,000. That information would be relayed to the perspective candidate. Councilmember- Renzei asked whether Sunnyvale had offered a housing option. Mr. Perry responded no. • However, that was an_issue that the Council was willing to talk about. Councilmember Eyerly asked whether Mr, Hughes and Mr. Perry would work on the assignment. Mr. Hughes 'responded yes. Councilmember Klein asked how did Mr. Hughes see the search for Palo Alto different from that for Sunnyvale. Mr. Hughes said that there were a lot of similarities i.e. the market situation, Palo Alto was more litigation oriented than Sunnyvale, so it would be more challenging for people who liked I iti ration. In terms of a market place, they would look in a similar mode recognizing that Palo Alto is a different type of community than Sdnnyvale_- Councilmember Bechtel asked what type of guarantee they,, had of finding a candidate. Mr. Perry said that there were two options: 1) to pay for their expenses to that point, and 2). to start the search over again at no additional costs. Councilmember Bechtel asked if a candidate is employed and three months later quits, what was their options. Mr. Perry said that Hughes, Heiss feels an obligation to the candidate as well as to the city. fhe worse thing that could possibly happen is that the candidate finds out fourmonths in that, if he had known something, he would not have taken the job. Therefore, he felt- that it was very important for them to be very, candid with the candidates and to give Council as much information about the city as possible. Councilmember Bechtel confirmed that Hughes, Heiss had not needed to -start a search over in the past. She asked what was their proposed number of. candidates. Mr. Hughes answered from 3 to 8. Councilmember Fazzino asked whether there would be an easily identifiable secondary list of 10 people. Mr. Hughes responded yes. Councilmember Fazzino referred to the tentative material titled. City Attorney for Palo Alto -- which he felt contained very good material - it has a line in it which' reflects extensively the concerns of the Council for a city attorney "Sees herself/himself as part of the City's top Ma.lygeent team and not a a separate guardian of the law." He asked Mr. Hughes to expand on that 1 1 935 6/18/81 statement. Mr. Hughes said -that historically because of city attorneys in some cities are council -appointed, and in some cities elected, and the city manager is council -appointed, there often is present two different points of view. At present, the city is litigation -oriented, and it is necessary to have some kind of a team approach which is more a function of personality than structure. He has seen city attorneys who were`totally independent of the city manager, work very well with the manager. The manager and attorney needs to be the right person. That is something that needs to be sensed when people are asked the questions. He suggested that they might use the Daisy chain approach where not only the Council interviews the candidates, but the candidate is spinned through the city with a key interview with the city manager, the police chief, personnel director, etc.The more information developed the better for the Council, the city as well as the prospective candidate. Mr. Perry said that that was an important criteria used in the Sunnyvale. process. Councilmember Eyerly said that with regard to the Council and their wish for an independent attorney, he asked how did they determine what candidate should be recommended to the Council. Mr. Hughes said the reference checking would issue some information. Questions are asked in such a way ,so that the attorney has got to say what he or she can do: at the interviews between him/her and them. There is no magical..solution. Councei!member Renzel said that if the Council chores to run their city attorney candidate by other staff members,-ho,w specifically can a Council evaluate that input. Mr. Hughes said it is merely input. Councilmember.Renzel said it puts the Council in the position of rejecting .someone el se` s advice. Mr. Hughes said he saw that as no problem. It would be necessary for the Council to make up their own minds. It really fosters good, not good, etc. They would simply indicate.that the staff ranked the candidates in a specific order. What might be helpful is that staff may see something that the Council or Hughes, Heiss didn't and raise a flag that allows further questioning. In closing, Mr. Hughes said that they take.affirmative action very -seriously. He felt that.was important that minorities were actively sought. 1 Mr. Perry:said -that within their last 6 searches there were minority candidates and that in three of the cases, they were appointed.. Mr. Hughes thanked the Council. Mayor Henderson indicated that Thursday, June 25 the Council wool d =interview Ralph Andersen and Associates . ATTEST: The meeting adjourned at 9:00. p.m. APPROVED: 936 6/18/81